Oil & Gas

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Diezani Allison-Madueke, minister of Petroleum resources unveils federal government’s strategy to position Nigeria as regional hub of gas in Africa

|  By Vincent Nzemeke  |  Aug. 5, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

THE Nigerian petroleum sector has recorded great developments that will reposition it and make the country a gas producing nation able to harness the benefits of gas as a source of energy for the future. These were the views of Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s minister of petroleum resources during the presentation of the ministry’s mid-term score card at the ministerial platform which held in Abuja July 23. She said the giant strides witnessed so far in the petroleum and gas industry was in line with the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan. The minister highlighted the gains of the gas revolution to include a massive boost in gas to power supply for electricity generation, establishment of commercial framework for gas, development of gas infrastructure across the country and the stimulation of gas-based industrialization with the Ogidigben Gas City in Delta State as the flagship project with a capacity to create 100,000 jobs at the construction stage.

Allison-Madueke’s presentation which was titled: Moving the Oil and Gas Industry to the Next Level, also showed that Nigeria had a gas reserve of 182 trillion cubic feet as at the end of 2012 which was more than the total crude oil reserves of 36.8 billion barrels as at the same period. She added that the figure indicated that Nigeria was more of a gas than a crude oil country which is in line with the global shift to the use of gas as a cleaner energy for the future.

Before now, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had predicted that Nigeria will become the regional hub of petrochemical and fertilizer by 2017.

David Ige, group executive director of gas and power, made this disclosure recently in Abuja while receiving the prestigious Man of the Year Award from an Oil and Gas magazine. He said that the gas development reform and capacity in the country were being redoubled and that a few years from now the entire nation would be wired up for gas. “All that we need to make Nigeria a regional hub of petrochemical and fertilizer is in place and by 2017, Nigeria clearly will become the regional hub of gas in Africa.”

Ige also noted that the dedicated major Gas Infrastructure Development initiated by the Jonathan administration was designed to create flexibility of movement of domestic gas nationwide.

Corroborating this, Allison-Madueke explained that the massive gas infrastructure development across the country was aimed at getting gas to industries and that Abuja and the Northern part of the country would be linked with gas pipelines for rapid industrialization by 2015. She listed some of the completed and ongoing gas infrastructure projects to include Escravos-Oben Pipeline, expansion of Oben-Lagos Pipeline, Calabar-Ajaokuta and Ajaokuta-Kano Pipeline Systems among others.

Acknowledging the contributions of the crude oil sector in transforming Nigeria into a gas nation, the minister said the increase in gas was possible because there had been optimal production of crude oil in spite of challenges such as crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

Regarding developments in the mid-stream and downstream sectors, Madueke disclosed that the Turn-Around maintenance of the Port-Harcourt Refinery would be completed in the last quarter of 2013 while work on Kaduna and Warri Refineries was expected to be concluded by 2014.

The minister also noted that massive pipelines and inland depots rehabilitation has also been carried out on the Kaduna – Suleja, Kaduna – Gusau, Suleja – Minna, Kaduna – Jos and Jos – Gombe pipelines and that adjoining depots had become operational, just like those in Aba and Benin depots that had earlier been commissioned.

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